Lesson Plans and Handouts

Parental Consent & Privacy

Under the app’s terms of use: Children under the age of 13 may not participate in The Great Thankgiving Listen, and parental consent is required for people under the age of 18 to register for a StoryCorps App account.

If you choose to require a parental permission slip, we have included sample one here that you can easily customize to your needs. (Please note: The permission slip is for school/community use only and should not be submitted to StoryCorps.)

After recording, students will have the option to publish their interviews. If published, the interviews will be entered into the StoryCorps Archive in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and appear publicly online at StoryCorps.org. Students who do not want to publish their interviews can save the interviews to their devices. (Please note: Only interviews published to the StoryCorps website are archived at the Library of Congress.)

Students and other participants should not be required to publish their interviews publicly in order to receive credit. This is to preserve participant privacy. Please see our privacy setting recommendations for those who prefer to keep their recordings private.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-12.1-10 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-12.6-9 Use technology, including the internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other
information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Get the Printable Placemat

It’s the connections they’ll remember more than the centerpiece or the stuffing. Download and print the official 2018 Great Thanksgiving Listen placemat, in whatever quantity you need, and you’ll have a sampler platter of Great Questions closer than the salt shaker. Use them as ice-breakers around the table, then after the meal find a quiet place and record your interview with the free StoryCorps App.